The Online Shopping Thread

This is a discussion on The Online Shopping Thread within Gadgets, Computers & Software, part of the Shifting gears category; Placed an order with Jabong on Nov 1st and received it yesterday. The estimated date of delivery was 10th of ...

Placed an order with Jabong on Nov 1st and received it yesterday. The estimated date of delivery was 10th of November.
This is under promising and over delivering. Had same turn around time with them earlier as well when they gave some 2 weeks estimate on delivery.

Bluedart, in their infinite wisdom have somehow decided that the optimal route for a Delhi-Bangalore delivery is through Salem, Tamil Nadu. Package left Delhi 5 days ago. Untraceable, and Bluedart customer service is unreachable since two days.

Bluedart, in their infinite wisdom have somehow decided that the optimal route for a Delhi-Bangalore delivery is through Salem, Tamil Nadu. Package left Delhi 5 days ago. Untraceable, and Bluedart customer service is unreachable since two days.

May be they are re-packaging the consignment for you, after taking out the product and placing a stone inside.

I read in news that www.amzon.in is finding really hard to survive in Indian condition and it may be possible that in coming days they may wrap up from India. Indian goverment does not allow FDI in retail so they are only limited to platform provider where seller is someone and buyer is some other and all customer wraths are coming to amazon.

Whereas Flipkart has upper hand being Indian company so they can sell product themseleves in addition to provide platform to other sellers.

Whereas Flipkart has upper hand being Indian company so they can sell product themseleves in addition to provide platform to other sellers.

No, Flipkart also cannot do this because they are not an Indian company. They are a Singapore Company, I think. That's why, they had to breakup Flipkart into 2 pieces - Flipkart and WS-Retail. Flipkart doesn't sell anything on it's own now for quite some time.

Offlate this thread has just become a courier bashing thread. People should understand the traders and resellers in India are new to online selling. They will get better with experience.

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I think online selling and buying industry will mature in next couple of years and most of the entities associated with them will become professional and customer centric. Some would say I am asking too much but only after you wish you get something

Not the case: whether it is a courier, an online retail company, or a restaurant, if people don't have the skills and experience then they should not be in the business. Flipkart, for instance, is not some roadside stall guy dreaming of, one day, having a five-star restaurant: it is a multi-billion dollar business. If it screws up, don't "understand," shout loudl! I'm not a business school, and I if I were I would expect them to pay me, not the other way around.

The retailers employ the couriers, the responsibility and the blame lies with the retailers. If the couriers screw up: shout at the retailers.

I too have had had good experience with Flipkart over the years. That makes it worse for me to see a company that was built on decent principles (sound business principles too) of good customer service going in the direction that it seems to have committed itself to.

Snapdeal: Item was defective. I called up and sent them the snaps. The reverse pickup was done in 3 days and the money was credited in 5.

Amazon: Bought a funky looking razor which was at a 'Deal' price of 279Rs. Item arrived promptly but was shocked to see that the MRP was 199.
Tried the amazon chat and the associate asked me for a pic. I mailed the same and got a confirmation that my refund would be processed immediately (though it was a non returnable item). I was asked to keep the razor
However, even 4 days after the issue I saw the item still bein sold - now at a price of Rs 399. I immediately replied on the previous mail that why the item is being sold. Got a wordy email from a service associate who made no sense. However, the item went out of stock immediately!
Clearly, they don't have a process in place to tie up customer refund requests due to wrong MRP with inventory being shown on the site.

Flipkart: Bought a washing machine with exchange offer. On delivery date, ekart logistics (Flipkart owned) came for delivery with a wrong model numbered machine! I refused to take delivery - my mistake. Should have known that flipkart doesn't take kindly to people who reject wrong products. Anyway, after an hour of deliberation (he with his confused seniors and me reasoning with a mellifluous automated voice on flipkart customer care which assured me that my call was 'important') the guy promised to come back with the correct machine the next day.
In the evening I received a delivery confirmation mail from flipkart. I immediately called up the customer care and the associate bluffed about registering a complaint for the same! Maybe I should have been more receptive to her greetings.
Next day, the flipkart guys came with the correct product but with a wrong invoice (serial number of older product) I immediately called up customer care who simply couldn't understand why I was calling about delivery when I had taken it already. On finally understanding the issue he couldn't give a commitment that a correct invoice will be generated. So, with a heavy heart, I saw my machine being hauled back onto the tata ace. I did get some assurance regarding generating a correct invoice.
I will not narrate the whole ordeal now as its truly frustrating. But, here are the highlights.

1. Overall I had to make 10/11 calls and each call was for an average of 1 hour each. By the 8th call I could accurately guess what they were going to say. By the 10th, I used to finish up the niceties like 'really apologetic'/ 'immediate resolution'/'top priority'/'valued customer'/'24 hours' myself so that we could get started on the real conversation.
2. I got 5 false deadlines from 'managers'/'senior team members'/'relationship managers' about how my machine was going to be delivered in the next 24 hours - which never happened. Wait, i think someone threw in a 12 hour deadline too at one point of time.
3. Twice got these 'commitments' from smooth talking smart-a**es who used a lot of jargon and how just after the call I will get a confirmation from logistics/senior manager/email conf - but it never happened. Yes, I did refresh my browser and diligently checked through spam. Maybe it will come some day.
4. Used up all the channels available to me. A fb page they don't monitor, an email ID which only answers in robotic and few friends in flipkart who sheepishly asked for the order ID and never followed up. Not that I blame them. We customers are really becoming an indisciplined lot.

Finally, after 7 days flipkart took pity on me and delivered the correct product -- with a manually updated invoice number. IFB confirmed that they will honour the warranty which the service associate would fill up on installation and not that phony invoice.

The machine was a birthday gift for wifey thats why maybe I bothered them a bit too much. Flipkart clearly didn't like my choice of gift so I was forced to make other arrangements . Got her a cheesy Archies mug on her birthday when another 'deadline' fell through. Not sure she liked the mug too much

I've been using Amazon for a while now & have only good things to say about them.

I started off by ordering low priced items (within INR 500) from them. Stuff that wasn't amazon assured. I got those items within time & in good condition.

Then I moved on to slightly pricier stuff (Pampers for my new born) ~1500 INR. This time amazon assured deliveries. Again delivery within promised date & with superb packaging.

Next came the big ticket purchase. It was time for me to pick up a new laptop. So with fingers crossed, I ordered the macbook air 11" model (Amazon assured). Received the laptop shipped from Bombay to Madras, delivered within 24 hours flat & in perfect condition & with a laptop in the box - no bricks .

I've found orders that are amazon assured are really well packed, even better packed than when purchasing from flipkart (W.S. Retail)

My latest purchase with Amazon was ON protein whey powder (Amazon Assured) that came in this evening. Once again delivered ahead of time & really well packed.

5 stars for the amazon experience so far. Also it doesn't hurt that I get 10x miles on my credit card for spends on amazon.in

I read in news that www.amzon.in is finding really hard to survive in Indian condition and it may be possible that in coming days they may wrap up from India. Indian goverment does not allow FDI in retail so they are only limited to platform provider where seller is someone and buyer is some other and all customer wraths are coming to amazon.

Whereas Flipkart has upper hand being Indian company so they can sell product themseleves in addition to provide platform to other sellers.

That's not true. It is just an outside risk that they see and mention in their quarterly earnings report. They have to outline all risks and this is just one of them. They don't have any plans of exiting India operations. They have just pumped in 2 Billion dollars into this. They are here to stay.

amazon.in is pathetic! I placed an order on 3rd and expected delivery was 7th Nov. I checked the order status yesterday and it was showing item reached Bangalore (from Delhi). Carrier is FedEx and I was happy, but today morning it shows new delivery date as 11-Nov. They mentioned "Future delivery requested" as reason, now my package is taking a Delhi tour.

In my opinion and as has also been stated before - A lot of the blame for the poor deliveries (from Amazon, FK) actually go to the shitty courier companies who are all down in the dumps. I have had items sent by India Post and they seem to reach faster. On its part, especially Amazon (and Amazon fulfilled) orders are almost always dispatched very fast.
Now Amazon does not and can not control the last mile connectivity done by Courier Companies which results in delays. I am not sure what else they can do about it.

My currently 'ongoing' bad experience with Amazon - After begin assured of delivery multiple times, one of the CCEs (Customer Care Execs) told they have no clue why Gati is not delivering the items and asked to place a fresh order with a One Day Shipping, Amazon would be refunding any extra cost associated with it, which I have done. No problems with that, but I believe they should have asked to me to do so on the 1st call itself and not on the 5th.

The machine was a birthday gift for wifey thats why maybe I bothered them a bit too much. Flipkart clearly didn't like my choice of gift so I was forced to make other arrangements . Got her a cheesy Archies mug on her birthday when another 'deadline' fell through. Not sure she liked the mug too much

They screwed up my orders even on Big Billion Day. They Cancelled them after a day saying "We tried to contact you regarding the order but you were not available. Hence cancelling the order for your safety"
Pure unadulterated crap. I would have appreciated an honest reason like they got stocked out or something like that.

What I have learnt from my last experience with flipkart is that it has become tremendously sarkaari. False commitments, blank lies, absolutely mindnumbing dumbness and some sarcasm too. This wasn't the case a few years back.
Hopefully we will have a few more good sites coming up so that the customer is not taken for granted.

If I may digress, I worked for MakeMyTrip till a few years back. Deep Kalra, a very fine person and founder, said to us that we Indians are used to such low levels of customer service that even doing an average job at it will be appreciated.

In my opinion and as has also been stated before - A lot of the blame for the poor deliveries (from Amazon, FK) actually go to the shitty courier companies who are all down in the dumps. I have had items sent by India Post and they seem to reach faster. On its part, especially Amazon (and Amazon fulfilled) orders are almost always dispatched very fast.
Now Amazon does not and can not control the last mile connectivity done by Courier Companies which results in delays. I am not sure what else they can do about it.

Everything. If you are a courier, and you work for Amazon, then they are quite likely your biggest customer, or, at least, pretty big, so, if they lay down service-level demands, you listen, right? And do, right?

And if Amazon/Flipkart/etc do not stipulate service level, then Amazon/Flipkart/etc are responsible.

Online shopping delivers to the home. Never mind the last mile, the seller is responsible for the last yard! The job is not done until the goods are in your house.

Don't accept excuses that say otherwise and, please, don't make escuses for them that let them off the hook.